Drying Up

It's with so many mixed emotions that I've begun the process of discontinuing breastfeeding. Obviously I had to start pumping more when I returned to work but I've been exclusively pumping for the past 3-4 weeks. Though I seemed to have lucked out and missed some of the more horrible issues like mastitis, I battled low production amounts and I was never able to nurse without a shield. I just got to a point when I felt done. So I'm slowly stopping. I'm taking the last of my More Milk pills. I'm skipping pumping sessions. Thanks to a 50/50 blend of breastmilk and formula for the past several weeks, I've been able to save up enough to keep Jude on this blend until he's at least six months. It's been so emotional and I'll be sad when I'm done, but it feels good to have made a decision.

In order to make myself feel better about this decision, I did a little breakdown of the costs associated with breastfeeding. One of the arguments for breastfeeding over formula feeding is that formula costs money and breastmilk doesn't. Consequently, I didn't really budget much money over and above the pump. But when I started adding it up, well... let's just say I was a little surprised (you can click on the sheet and use your arrow keys to see the whole sheet):



So by my estimation, in 15 weeks, breastfeeding has cost a little more than twice as much as formula feeding (with ready to feed - the most expensive kind of formula) from the beginning. Of course, some of the costs with breastfeeding are non-essential, and some are one-time. But WOW. And then factor in the fact that our daycare will provide formula at no added cost. WOW. Who knew my boobs could be so expensive?